The Spirit's Role in Scripture and Tradition | Sixth Sunday of Easter Reflection
Readings and Virtual Homily for May 25, 2025, Sixth Sunday of Easter; Last Day of Classes at O’Dowd; San Gabriel Media on the Taxi-way
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8
Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23
John 14:23-29
Dear Friends and Family,
Lots of possibilities for a solid and insightful homily this weekend across several areas of theological reflection; I am going to keep it simple and focus on the Gospel passage.
Chapters 13-17 are John’s description of the Last Supper. The other three Gospels sum that event up in fifteen or twenty verses. John takes five chapters.
Part of the reason is the time John takes to recount Jesus’ descriptions of the Holy Spirit, whom he promises will be sent, once he has returned to the Father. Jesus says several things about the Spirit in these passages; I want to focus today on his promise that the Spirit will remind the disciples of all that Jesus said and did (vs. 26).
This promise of course dovetails with our general understanding of the Spirit as the principal Author of Scripture. We know from magisterial teaching that the Spirit underwrites, enables and effects communication with and about God. The Spirit is responsible for our understanding of God. No one can say Jesus Christ is Lord, Paul tells us, except by the power of the Spirit.
Jesus’ promise that the Spirit will prompt the disciples in their teachings of all that Jesus said and did is first fulfilled in the oral tradition — the eyewitness testimony transmitted through the preaching of the disciples in the first two or three decades after the Ascension. The promise is further made real as the first books of the New Testament start to be written — perhaps as early as the 50s, just twenty years after Jesus walked the earth.
The Spirit is responsible not just for Scripture but also sacred Tradition; those teachings, understandings and practices handed down generation to generation and century to century from the Apostolic Age to our own. In this regard the Catechism refers to the Spirit as “the living memory of the Church.” I like that phrasing! I think we could go deep with that, if we had the time!
The living memory of the Church, of course, includes more than the doctrinal formulations of the great councils. And it is more than rite and ritual surrounding prayer, worship and the sacraments. The living memory of the Church includes all the Church’s many apostolates — from soup kitchens to hospitals to universities to evangelical associations. The living memory of the Church likewise includes the mystical tradition of the saints, from theologians to visionaries, and it includes apparitions of Jesus, of the Blessed Mother, St. Michael and others.
All of these elements of the faith are empowered and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. Our appreciation of these and all aspects of the faith is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our very desire to know anything at all about God is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
We owe our salvation to Jesus. We owe to the Holy Spirit the fact that we understand that we owe our salvation to Jesus. And that, again, is a matter we could plunge deep with, if this were a weekend retreat rather than a Sunday homily!
School is just about out at O’Dowd. Friday was the last day of classes. Finals are next week; the Class of 2025, whether I like it or not, walks the stage at graduation Saturday, May 31. Maybe it is my deep affection for this class, maybe it is for other reasons — this May, for maybe the first time in my ten years at the high school, I am not panting and gasping, crossing the finish line. The weeks since Easter vacation have passed smoothly, gracefully, joyfully. It has been a light and bright late spring on campus, for me. I do not feel tired at all. That’s as welcome as it is rare!
Finally, two weeks ago we plunged in with the first of several marketing strategies at San Gabriel Media, my book-and-media apostolate. The particular avenue is direct You Tube promotion; something we just were not ready to engage, prior to this month. Two weeks ago, Friday the 9th, the day we started the promotion, we had 278 loyal and dogged subscribers at San Gabriel. Last Friday, the 16, we had 5900, in five countries. As I am writing this Thursday evening, the 22, we are well over 23,000 and are gaining two to three thousand subscribers daily.
These numbers speak for themselves and for the effectiveness of our strategy — which has caught all of us a bit off-guard. We did not know what to expect. We figured we would know when we experienced it, whatever “it” was. Given this initial success, we are committing to a summer-long effort here, involving four phases. We’ll take stock after Labor Day. And this is only one of several marketing strategies we intend to launch, this summer.
In the lingo of the You Tube world, the San Gabriel Media channel is “blowing up.” The timing — that this is happening precisely as I am about to start a seven-month sabbatical, is unmistakable. I postponed the sabbatical twice, both times out of concerns for what was best for the high school. In neither instance, however, was San Gabriel in anything close to the position it is in this May — now, clearly, is the right time for me to devote half a year to San Gabriel.
God’s timing is always perfect.
Gotta run.
Enjoy the holiday weekend.
God bless.
Love,
Fr. Brawn